Emirates welcomes Saudi move

Dubai’s official airlines Emirates has welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to consider allowing foreign carriers to operate domestic flights within the Gulf Kingdom but said it does not have immediate plans for entering that market.

Ahmed Khoury, Emirates’ senior vice president for the GCC, Middle East and Iran described Riyadh’s decision as a “positive development” but added the company is still waiting for more details from Saudi Arabia.

“Emirates is interested in this Saudi move….we always study available opportunities in all parts of the world and try to benefit from them,” Khoury told the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah.

“Saudi Arabia is a vast market and this requires further studying…although we have no immediate plans in case of a final decision by Saudi Arabia to liberalize its domestic flight market, we are very much enthusiastic about this move and are waiti8ng for more details in this respect.”

Khoury said he believes a decision by the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority to admit foreign carriers into its domestic space would positively affect the region’s aviation industry and benefit all passengers.

“Dubai is a good example for the success of the open-skies policy, which has attracted many regional and global airlines to come here and benefit from the local market and growing competition in prices and services.”

Saudi Arabia said last week it is considering letting airlines from the GCC and other countries operate domestic flights inside the Kingdom, the world’s dominant oil exporter and one of the largest 20 global economies.

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